The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-11-09
OCEAN FORESTS.
AND THE SIX THOUSAND KINDS
OF SEAWEED FROM THEM.
Some of Their characteristics and
Uscs-Their Coloring and What
Causes It An Article of
Diet in Many Countries

Fifty or Sky years ago, when the yoy1
age across the Atlantic was by no means
the mere passing joke that it is today,l
travellers were in the habit of taking home
with them, as curiositics, sealed bottles
containing sea water, in which foated
clusters of seaweed, called from its ap-
pearance "tropical grapes" We rush to
and fro now without stopping to collect
specimens of the Gulf weed, which, after
all, can hardly be regarded as a rare
plant, seeing that its vast masses cover
somewhere about 100000 square miles
of the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. /
There are many seaweeds, however,
that grow on rocks and seem to have
roots, whose only use is to fix the
plant, thus enabling to sway about in
the water. Seaweeds, being composed
entirely of cells, do not require roots,
Unlike land plants, they need no con-
tinuous vessels to supply them with the
means of growth and life, the water in
which they live and move and have their
being furnishing both. In some instances
the cells are elongated into tubes; in
others number of calls are kept together
by gelatinous matter, and can easily
be separated, each cell having
an independent existence. An!
other point of dissimilarity to land
plants is that seaweeds attain a rich and
varied coloring without the amount of
light necessary to produce brilliant hues
in flowers. A weed known to vegetate
at the depth of 1872 feet is of fine grass
green, although the light that reaches lit
can scarcely be half as much as that aft
forded by an ordinary candle. The de-
gree of exposure to light has, neverthe:
less, we'll marked effects; red colored
species abound most in the darker and
deeper parts of the sea; the olive colored
occur chiefly in the neighborhood of the
tropics and between tide marks, while
the green inhabit the colder zones and
the shallower parts of the sea. As re-.
CARDS their distribution, some seaweeds
may be found from pole to pole, being as
abundant in the highest northern or
southern latitudes as at the equator.
There are said to be 5000 species Of
seaweeds, differing in size from several
hundred feet to the minute kinds that
NAV be seen "broidered on rock" For!
ests stretch under the ocean, whose tree,
trunks are loaded, like the great trees of
the tropics, with innumerable smaller
plants, some having tiny feathery
branches, others being fne'and translu-'
cent, like membrane. The stree" sea-
weed has trunk some ten feet high,i
and leaves that droop, willowwise, in
the water Submarine scenery, with its
strange variety of forms and tints, its
| wonderfully hued plant-like animals,
and rich in the grace of waving,
changing hues, and the peculiar burnisht
water lends to the color, surpasses anyt
effort of imagination. |
Marine plants differ in substance no!
less than in form and size, for some re-
semble Jelly, some are elastic like indiaF
rubber, others arc as tough as leather ori
as firm as wood; the fronds of many arei
delicatelv hranched and dentated, and
those of others thick and nerveless. The
Antartic regions produce the most gigan-
tic specimens; one in its horizontal;
| growth on the surface of the water!
ranges from 200 feet to 700 feet in
length. At the Falkland Isles this sea-
weed lines the beach for miles, and isl
formed by the surf into huge entaugledf
cables, thicker than the human body!
Another giant is to be seen on the shores
of the North Pacific, the Nereocystus. IL
is composed of a slender stem upwards
of three hundred feet long, which bears,
at its extremity barrel-shaped air-vesSel,
six or seven feet in length, and is crowned
with tuft of fifty leaves, each thirty
feet or forty feet long. These leaves are.
o favorite fishing ground of the ea-otter,
who seeks his prey with greater certainty
among their shady recesses. ....:
1t is we'll known that seaweeds have
most important uses in controlling the
currents of the ocean, and iii breaking the
force of the waves as they roll iu upon
the land. Darwin, alluding to their
value on the coasts of Terra del Fuego,
saws: 81 believe during the voyage of tho
Beagle and the Adventure not one rock
near the surface was discovered which
was not buoycd by this floating wood.
The good services it thus affords to YES
scs navigating near this stormy land is
: evident and has certainly saved many
from being wrecked" On shore they
are little less profitable. Almost every
species of scawecd can be used as
as fertilizer. On the Northwest
coast of America fishing lines are
made from seawccd, and in Scotland
the common "whiplash" isapplied to tho
same purpose. The Chinese make an exE
tcnsive use of scawecds, both as an article
of T;nt opd in their various manufaC-
lures. From them they derive the gum
for making lanterns and transparencies,
as we'll as size employed in the prepara-.
ton OF silk and paper. They are, be-
sides, the largest consumers of scaweed IN
tie world, and excel in ingenious methods
of cooking it. The wcll-known catablc
nests are believed to be formed Of sea-
; weed. Various edible species flourish
round the British Isles. "Laver,' as y
relish for the table, is used in various
parts OF England; 'tauglc" and "dulse'
were cried about the streets of Edinburg
in former days; the name Carragecn
Moss is applied in Ireland to two kinds
of scaweed, which are both nutritious
and supply the place of isinglass in max
ing iellies. Dulse, variously prepared. IS
eaten in more countries than one. The
| Irish have it under the name of ''dil-
lesk," and use it either raw or cooked,
the taste being something like oysters;
the Icelanders are particularly fond OF it
dried and powdered, when it is whitish
in color and sweet to the palate; while
! the Kamschatkans hrve fermcntcd
beverage made by it's help. Cattle show